Computers have become widely adopted for various applications, for both personal and corporate uses. Some computers operate as stand-alone data processing equipment, with perhaps a peripheral such as a printer and a display device. Although useful for many purposes, additional features and benefits may be achieved if multiple computers are networked together to share information and resources.
A computer network may be formed by connecting two or more computing devices with an information channel. One type of network is a local area network (LAN). A typical residential LAN, for example, may connect two computers to a printer. A typical corporate LAN, for example, may allow many users to share resources and large amounts of information, including databases and application software.
A second type of network is a wide area network (WAN). A prime example of a WAN is the Internet. WANs such as the Internet allow many computer devices to communicate messages and share information. When multiple LANs are interoperable with one or more WANs, opportunities for computing devices to communicate and share information greatly expand.
From the perspective of an individual computing device that is connected to a network, users may direct the communication of information over a network with a user interface generated by a web browser application. A web browser is typically configured to enable the user to access web sites on the Internet or the World Wide Web. Web browsers allow users to easily send and receive messages over a network in packets of information. Such packets of information may include the address of a search engine website, such as www.dogpile.com, for example.
The popularity and simplicity of sharing information over networks, such as the Internet, has resulted in demand for data processing and storage capacity to support high network traffic volume. One mechanism to address this demand may be referred to as a data center. In the context of the Internet, a data center may provide processing, storage, and support functions that improve performance or enhance the utility of the Internet. Data centers may also be deployed in other contexts. Financial institutions, for example, may employ one or more data centers to store financial account and transaction information.
A data center may provide data processing and storage capacity. In operation, a data center may be connected to a network, and may receive and respond to various requests from the network to retrieve, process, or store data. In addition to extensive data processing and data storage capabilities, data centers typically support high-speed data transfer and routing capabilities. To meet future network demands, data center capacity may continue to expand.